Leo Cautions Agitated Toby Before Charged Oval Entry
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo warns Toby to take it easy during his meeting with the President, hinting at the gravity of the upcoming conversation.
Toby and Leo enter the Oval Office where President Bartlet offers Toby a drink, setting a tense but civil tone.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Focused determination (inferred off-screen)
Sam referenced by Toby as actively revising the unfunny Correspondents' Dinner speech, invoked to deflect Leo's critique amid pre-Oval tension.
- • Refine speech for comedic impact
- • Support team communications needs
- • Wit strengthens political messaging
- • Revisions elevate administration optics
Building agitation erupting into profound shock and disbelief
Toby waits agitatedly in Outer Oval, defends Sam's speech work, enters Oval with Leo, politely greets President, accepts bourbon despite initial refusal, probes terrorist arrest details and FAA protocols relentlessly, then reels in shocked silence at MS revelation.
- • Confront Hoynes suspicions through presidential inquiry
- • Extract clarity on security threats amid fury
- • Administration deceptions undermine core trust
- • Immediate threats demand rigorous accountability
Calm professionalism amid underlying Oval tension
Charlie enters from Oval Office to crisply inform Leo and Toby they can go in, facilitating tense transition while maintaining poised vigilance at the threshold of revelation.
- • Smoothly usher senior staff into President's presence
- • Uphold Outer Oval operational flow
- • Protocol preserves presidential access control
- • Quiet efficiency supports leadership crises
deceptively avuncular then serious
greets Toby, insists Toby share a bourbon, shares trivia about bourbon and a terrorist arrest, discusses embassy closures and FAA security, reveals his MS diagnosis
- • reveal MS diagnosis while heightening emotional stakes with casual prelude
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Twin televisions in Outer Oval blare The Tonight Show's laughter and CNN's urgency, creating discordant ambient distraction that heightens tension during Leo-Toby wait and speech critique, underscoring late-night chaos as prelude to Oval confrontation.
Bartlet pours and insists Toby accept bourbon and white, using the drink as avuncular social lubricant and trivia segue to terrorist anecdote, masking MS revelation; Toby grips it untouched amid probing questions, symbolizing deferred emotional detonation.
U-Haul truck referenced in Bartlet's bourbon trivia as smuggling vessel for Hassan's nitroglycerin at Canadian border, diverting Toby's fury into security grilling and delaying MS bombshell, amplifying narrative misdirection.
Ten 2-ounce nitroglycerin jars cited in Bartlet's anecdote as Hassan's volatile cargo, fueling Oval debate on FAA evidence and embassy closures, serving as feigned crisis to heighten stakes before personal trust-shattering revelation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
U.S.-Canadian border cited as arrest site for Hassan and his U-Haul nitroglycerin, anchoring Bartlet's trivia diversion and Toby's FAA interrogation, transforming routine frontier into terror flashpoint amid bourbon ritual.
U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Brussels invoked by Bartlet as closed on State/Intelligence advice due to Hassan threat, escalating security discussion and diverting from MS reveal, embodying distant peril infiltrating Oval intimacy.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
CNN broadcasts on Outer Oval TV during wait, underscoring real-time news pressure on White House inner circle, paralleling internal secrets with external scrutiny in prelude to MS detonation.
The Tonight Show plays on Outer Oval TV, injecting comedic irrelevance into Leo-Toby tension, contrasting high-stakes politics with pop culture banality to amplify late-night disorientation before Oval entry.
Intelligence advises embassy closures post-Hassan arrest, cited by Bartlet to justify actions and deflect Toby, positioning shadowy apparatus as bulwark in security debate preceding personal revelation.
FAA grilled by Toby on evidence requirements, timelines, and holiday hesitations for Air Force orders, exposing bureaucratic friction in Bartlet's diversionary anecdote, heightening stakes before MS truth.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Leo convincing Bartlet to reveal everything to Toby leads to Bartlet's revelation of his MS diagnosis."
"Toby's confrontation with Bartlet about his MS diagnosis continues his relentless pursuit of truth."
"Toby's confrontation with Bartlet about his MS diagnosis continues his relentless pursuit of truth."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "Toby, take it easy in there, okay?""
"BARTLET: "Have a drink with me.""
"BARTLET: "You know what I found out recently? To be called bourbon, it has to come from Kentucky. Otherwise it's called sour mash.""